Criteo Becomes Ad Tech Poster Child After Impressive Q2

French firm Criteo is quickly evolving into an IPO advertising technology success story after it announced yet another record quarter.

Criteo’s revenue climbed 66% to €165.3 million in the second quarter of 2014 compared to Q2 2013’s €99.4 million, whereas revenue excluding traffic costs rose from last year’s €40 million to €67 million.

Net income is likely the figure that Criteo will be most pleased with as it managed to turn around a net loss of €5.6 million to €2.4 million in the black, which equates to an €8 million year-on-year rise.

EBITDA u-turn

A similar u-turn has occurred with the ad tech company’s earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation, and amortisation (EBITDA). A €0.7 million Q2 2013 posting has increased to €13.2 million in this year’s correlating quarter.

All this has led to a 170% surge in cash flow from operating activities - €4.1 million in Q2 2013 turning into €11.2 million this year, while free cash moved from a negative $2.5 million to €0.7 million.

There has been some serious growth in Criteo’s client base too, mostly because of an accelerating mid-market segment, with the company’s total clients flying up 42% year on year to 6,131 in Q2.

For the full fiscal year ending December 31 2014, Criteo expects to reach a revenue figure between €280 million and €284 million, with EBITDA of €55.5 million to €59.5 million.

Simon Holland

Simon is the news and research reporter at Existem. Previously a technology journalist, he now spends his time investigating both future and developing trends in performance marketing whilst producing editorial content for performancein.com.